Ready or not, here they come

After long, reflective talks with my family and much consideration about where the Morning News will be heading in the next couple years, I have come to a decision.

I am declaring myself eligible for the NFL Draft.

Hey, why not? Everybody else is.

You can't swing a fired college football coach these days without hitting some player who is leaving school early to "pursue a dream" or "go to the next level," or any of the other cliched justifications that are supposed to disguise their true intention to "cash in."

It is happening in programs as established as Michigan and as anonymous as Northwestern State, becoming more popular on campuses across the country than nickel beer night. It's a trend for quarterbacks, running backs, cornerbacks, and even linemen, who at one time would have stayed in school just for the meal plan.

And, while it is often devastating for programs like Virginia Tech, which lost Michael Vick this week, it can also be rewarding for places like Georgia, which rid itself of Quincy Carter.

This year, 28 underclassmen have made themselves available to the NFL, some you would expect and some you wouldn't recognize if they showed up at your tailgate party. What used to be an option exercised only by exceedingly gifted athletes whose need for college ball ran out before their eligibility now seems a possibility for any kid who starts on a Division I team.

Rudi Johnson, Ronney Daniels and Heath Evans couldn't help Auburn finish better than 60th nationally in total offense this season, yet all of them announced they were pro-caliber this week. Josh Booty completed less than 50 percent of his passes in 2000, did not have a 300-yard game and was yanked halfway through LSU's bowl game, but he thinks he's ready for the NFL.

Leaving early has become so common that it is now news when Toledo's leading rusher or Indiana's quarterback says he's returning for his senior season, the way Chester Taylor and Antwaan Randle El did this week. Not too long ago, even serious college fans might have had a hard time telling you whether Toledo or Indiana even played football.

But the question to ask is, whose problem is this?

The early out might not be one of the college game's endearing qualities - like marching bands and those little flags that wave from car windows. But it is not always a bad thing.

It might be stealing a little continuity from college football. But the game is still maintaining a better face than college basketball is against the same challenge. All this might also have a lot of middle-aged white guys standing around office buildings wagging their fingers disapprovingly and sermonizing the importance of education. But that reaction is typically based on jealousy, prejudice or both.

The only real trouble created by underclassmen making themselves draft-eligible belongs to the misguided, to players inclined to overestimate their own talent.

In the last two years, 60 college players have left school early in the hope of going pro. Many of them have profited handsomely. But nearly a quarter of those players, 13, were not even drafted. That just shows poor judgment can be a lot more damaging than poor grades, that just because a person has free choice doesn't mean he is capable of exercising it to his benefit.

Most times it works out pretty well.

Let's face it, a guy like Vick is going to need a college degree in his line of work about as much as I need stick-um in mine. Within months, some pro team is going to give him about $60 million to do what he enjoys doing, perhaps as much as $15 million just to sign his name. Each of the 10 or so sophomores and juniors who become first-round picks will start their careers with one pile of money up front and another pile deferred until long after they've finished playing.

That's a better retirement plan than any 401K. In fact, if hospitals and insurance companies weren't such fusspots about diplomas, medical students would be bolting school just as quickly as athletes, changing into scrubs after two semesters of biology.

Besides, it's not as if anybody has been demonstrating unyielding loyalty to college players to prevent them from leaving. By the time most kids complete four years of eligibility, the coach that recruited them has either taken more money to go somewhere else or has been fired, or their school has been placed on probation for some violation nobody remembered to mention during their initial visit.

So, staying or going is often simply a matter of maximizing opportunities, which when you think about it, is also what university life is about.

For every student who is genuinely interested in experiencing personal growth through the study of medieval literature, political science and European history, there are a thousand who are in college only because it is eventually going to help them get a better job. And what better job is there today than being a professional athlete?

We really shouldn't blame kids for taking that chance. It's just that when to take it is not always a clear choice. Some of the players getting out early don't know what they're getting into. And few are willing to be told they are not ready to play at a higher level.

The NFL has acted responsibly by agreeing not to employ players until after they have completed three years of college or two years of football. And some coaches might actually be thinking of something other than their depth chart when they suggest a kid should stick around another year to improve himself and his draftability.

Sometimes, the best decision only requires a little good advice.

So far, nobody has given me any of that. So I'm going. I'm taking my placekicker's strength and my noseguard's speed straight to the nearest NFL talent scout.

I might not be ready to make the jump. But I won't be the only one.

* * *

When the Lakers are celebrating another championship in a few months and they try to say all they really cared about was winning, remember this week and how Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neil both seemed most interested in having the biggest shovel in the sandbox. ... I don't want to say Marty Schottenheimer is in for a surprise as the Redskins' coach. But he's probably going to be the only person in Washington with less control over his new team than George W. Bush. ... Let's see, there was the $60 million for Ryan Leaf. And there might be at least that much for Michael Vick. Pretty soon the Chargers are going to be the only team with higher-priced arms than the Yankees. ... Sports are filled with tough guys. But none of them came off any tougher this week than Rick Majerus did when he announced he was taking the rest of the college basketball season off to spend time with his ailing mother. And when he didn't make any phony excuses for it. ... So, how exactly did Quincy Carter establish himself as a pro prospect? Was it by throwing five interceptions against South Carolina, by sitting out his final five games at Georgia or by leaving at least five blistering rumors of questionable activity in his trail out of Athens? ... The surprise of the week is not that Matt Millen will get $3 million to run the Lions. It's that he was getting $3 million from Fox to run his mouth. ... Good to see Starbucks will be buying the SuperSonics. I mean, something has to wake up the NBA. ... When I heard Friday the last Triple Crown winner had been euthanized, I thought there might have been big problems for Carl Yastremski's family. It turned out to be a problem for Affirmed instead. ... Dick Vermeil sure knows how to rewrite a fairy tale. You know, like having Goldilocks take the three bears down to the local taxidermist. Because there's no way his new job with the Chiefs ends as sweetly as his old job with the Rams did ... Rick Pitino and UNLV? Now, that makes sense. If only because it's good to know grease seeks its own level, too. ... How long before Athens-area Kmart stores announce that blue-light special on No. 17 Georgia jerseys?

Morning News sports columnist Tim Guidera can be reached at 652-0352.

Catch up on Tim Guidera's take on the sporting life: click here to read his earlier columns.